The 2009 Mountain West Conference women's soccer tournament begins today, but host and eighth-ranked BYU doesn't see its first action until Thursday.

The Cougars (16-2-2, 6-0-1 MWC) are the regular-season champs, and will play the winner of a game between New Mexico (seeded fourth) and Wyoming (seeded fifth), which takes place at 3 p.m. today at South Stadium on the BYU campus.

BYU takes on the winner of that game on Thursday at 3 p.m. That game, and the other semifinal game (at noon) between San Diego State, seeded second, and the winner of today's noon game between sixth-seeded TCU and third-seeded Utah, will be broadcast live on The Mtn.

The Cougars hold a 15-3-1 all-time record in MWC tournament play. They've recorded six shutout wins, six tournament championships, seven first-round byes and six tournament MVPs since the inception of the Mountain West Conference in 1999.

Freshman Carlee Payne leads the Cougars with 12 goals and 46 shots. Payne has scored a goal in 12 of BYU's 20 games this season, two of them coming against conference opponents, and has started every game this year for the Cougars.Sophomore goalie McKinzie Olson has 10 shutouts this season, a new career-high

The championship game, scheduled for noo on Saturday, will be streamed live on The Mtn.'s Web site (www.themtn.tv) and air on the linear network via same-day tape delay at midnight MT. It will also be re-broadcast at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

All-session tickets and single-game tickets for the MWC Tournament are on sale online at byutickets.com. All-session tickets are $20 for reserved seats, $15 for adults general admission, $12 for students general admission. Children age 5-and-under are free.

For information, call the Marriott Center ticket office at 800-322-BYU1.

In other MWC soccer news, BYU's senior Hermann Trophy Candidate Andrea Willis was named MWC Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight year.

Willis has anchored BYU's defense all season. This year, the Cougars only allowed 11 goals.

Other Cougars earning honors were Payne, junior Kassidy Shumway and Olson, who joined Willis on the All-MWC first team, while freshman Lindsi Lisonbee was named second team.

Payne was also recognized as the Freshman of the Year.

• Men's golf: At Stockton, Calif., the BYU men's golf team went 5-under-par at the Pacific Invitational for the second straight day, finishing the second round at minus-10 and in sixth place. Senior Robbie Fillmore continued his impressive play as he moved to 8-under overall, shooting a 2-under 69 to land in third place overall.

Fillmore's score was not the lowest of the day for BYU. Two other Cougars went one stroke better at 68 as Brady Johnson and Esteban Calisto were both 3-under par. Jordan Rodgers shot a 74 and Zac Blair was plus-7. The tournament concludes today.

• Women's golf: At Laie, Hawaii, the BYU women's golf team maintained its position in Round 2 of the Turtle Bay Collegiate Invitational, staying in 14th place with at plus-38 overall. The Cougars improved their stroke total by two shots with a round of 20-over-par.

Maggie Yuan, Amanda Keith and Kelsey Vines all shot 75s for BYU. The tournament concludes today.

• Swimming: Sophomore diver Brandon Watson and seniors Natasha Menezes and Tawni Jones earned MWC men's diver, women's swimmer and women's diver honors, respetively.

Menezes had a record-breaking weekend at home. Against UNLV with her mother in attendance, she broke the 500 free BYU pool record (4:55.46) that stood for 27 years, held by her mother, Melanie Rile-Menezes (4:56.87). She also broke the 200 free BYU pool record (1:50.57) and won the 1,000 free and 500 free on Saturday against ASU. She was also part of two winning relay teams.

Jones finished first on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards both on Friday against UNLV (282.38 1-m3534, 320.70 3-meter) and on Saturday against ASU (292.88, 303.90).

Watson only competed in Saturday's meet against Arizona State's divers, three of which competed in the 2008 Olympics. He won both the 1-meter (353.25) and 3-meter (364.88) events.